Spatial diversity in wireless communication systems has proven to be very effective. In multi-path propagation conditions, each receiving antenna or receiving antenna field in an antenna array experiences a different fading environment. It is likely that if one receiving antenna is in a deep fade, another receiving antenna is obtaining a sufficient signal.
In a system which uses a spatial diversity scheme, it is often necessary to pick the “best” receiving antenna field to receive data packets. The selection criteria can be based on the highest power received. Despite this method being easy to implement, it has disadvantages, such as receiving a signal with high power on a particular receiving antenna field, but with a low signal quality due to a noise source in the reception coverage area. This will result in a receiver picking a field with high power, yet resulting in a high Bit Error Rate (“BER”). Thus, an improved selection criteria is desired.